Coach wants chances to win games in fourth quarter

LOS ANGELES — — Coach Mike MacIntyre says the Colorado football team will be improved this season, but how big a jump the Buffs are able to make remains to be seen.

That was the message from the second-year CU coach as the Buffs took their turn in front of the media horde Thursday at Pac-12 Conference media day at Paramount Studios. MacIntyre was accompanied by wide receiver Nelson Spruce and defensive lineman Juda Parker, who echoed their coach in saying they believe CU will be more competitive.

"I feel like we're going to be improved everywhere," MacIntyre said. "Now we just got to go make a difference and get a lot of those games into the fourth quarter and win them in the fourth quarter."

Most fourth quarters in the Buffs' first three seasons of Pac-12 play have amounted to garbage time with stadiums emptying out at home and on the road and backups getting plenty of playing time. The Buffs lost six Pac-12 games by 22 or more points in MacIntyre's first season, going 4-8, a three-game improvement over the disastrous 1-11 2012 season.

In a sport in which teams rarely go from near the bottom to the top in the span of one offseason, keeping games more competitive and giving fans a brighter future to believe in and get behind is the next step for MacIntyre and his players. The 49-year old coach wears a rubber bracelet around his right wrist these days with the word 'uncommon' stamped on it.

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MacIntyre, who has lost 55 pounds since Christmas, teaches his players to be uncommon by not skipping classes or workouts or taking the easy way out of other situations in life. MacIntyre said he is seeing his players buy in to the philosophy on and off the field and he believes it will help build a winning program once again in Boulder.

Parker said his two top priorities for the season are achievable, in part, because so much has changed in the program. His goals are playing in a bowl game and leaving his younger teammates something on which to build.

"Probably the most important would be just leaving a legacy of guys having a winning culture and guys at Colorado really coming together as a family and knowing what it means to succeed and lean on each other standing shoulder to shoulder and translating that to wins on the football field," Parker said. "That's what I want to see."

While the Buffs haven't produced a winning season since 2005 and haven't been to a bowl game since 2007, MacIntyre is aiming for achieving both of those goals this season and maybe even more. He pointed to the Southeastern Conference last season where Auburn and Missouri advanced to the SEC title game one year after finishing with three and five wins respectively.

"I think college football is unique in that way," MacIntyre said. "You're still dealing with really, really, young men that have a lot of maturing to do. A lot of things can happen. We'll move up eventually. I hope it's this year, but we'll keep moving up. We'll do it. I think it's all a process of building it. You see it all the time. Every year you see some people move up and work at it. People, so to speak, come out of the woodwork."

The Buffs will begin preseason practices a week from Saturday and kickoff the season in Denver against Colorado State on Friday night Aug. 29.

MacIntyre said the Buffs don't need to make drastic improvements to make a jump in the standings. He said improving three or four percent in certain situations such as third downs and in the red zone on both offense and defense would have a big impact on the scoreboard.

CU football attendance dropped to levels not seen in at least three decades last season with crowds numbering fewer than 40,000 in five of six home games. It is MacIntyre's job to bring fans back to Folsom Field by winning more games and thereby improve the financial bottom line of the entire athletic department. It's a lot of pressure on one man's shoulders, which is part of the reason he is paid more than $2 million annually.

MacIntyre said he doesn't feel a weight on his shoulders but he senses an intense desire from CU fans to turn things around. He said having grown up with a college football coach for a father, he understood at an early age that winning football games means a lot to plenty of people at the school who might not even like football.

When his father, George, began coaching at Vanderbilt that program averaged 12,000 fans, MacIntyre said. When his dad left the job, the Commodores were drawing 40,000 per game. MacIntyre said he is confident Folsom Field will be packed again in the coming years as he continues what he calls 'the process' of building.

"I enjoy being able to hopefully in some way help all the other sports," MacIntyre said. "There are a lot of great coaches at our place and a lot of great kids in other sports that could benefit from different things and I sure hope I can help out on that."

New coordinator pushes Buffs to work, play at level he expectsJim Leavitt has discovered this much about his new defense at Colorado: He has some talent with which to work, but his players need to put it in another gear. Full Story

New coordinator pushes Buffs to work, play at level he expectsJim Leavitt has discovered this much about his new defense at Colorado: He has some talent with which to work, but his players need to put it in another gear. Full Story